Monday, 8 August 2011

Doctor Who: Episodes 8 - 11 trailer: 8 fatuous observations

It's a trailer for the second part of the latest series of Doctor Who, due back on BBC One on August 27.

It looks quite exciting, doesn't it.

But let's look closer. What can we determine from the lightning-quick editing and blustery operatic music designed to whet our appetite, quicken our pulse and make us reach for one's inhaler?

1. There will be running. A lot of running. The cast, had they not already finished shooting the whole thing quite a while ago, may in fact need to borrow that inhaler we just mentioned.

2. The Doctor wears a top hat and tails. He may attempt to dance, he may not.

3. Winston Churchill is back, as seen in Victory of the Daleks. He's pointing a gun, dramatically. Let's hope he's lost a bit of weight, as he's heading for an early grave like that. Think of your BMI, man.

4. James Corden, last seen in The Lodger, is also back. He's not pointing a gun, but he looks like he's about to kiss the Doctor in some sort of embrace. DOCTOR WOO-HOO or DOCTOR COO-EEE or TIMELORD TO GAYLORD, says The Sun, maybe.

5. The TARDIS smashes through a window. The TARDIS smashes through a window! Anyone know a good glazier?

6. River Song - aka Amy and Rory's daughter - has an eye patch. That other women who kidnapped Amy also has an eye patch. PERHAPS THEY ARE CONNECTED IN SOME WAY.

7. Cybermen - blowing up! That'll explain their lavish but brief cameo appearance in episode six, when they also blew up. In terms of budgets and such like - no, come back reader - it makes more sense for them to have been used again, and properly, so perhaps this is why they are re-appearing here. (Although tv-ooh generally endorses the reappearance of the Cybermen.)

8. Well done for getting this far. Important lines of dialogue heavy with portent and meaning:

"Something has happened to time"

"Time is running out"

"An impossible astronaut will rise from the deep and strike the Time Lord dead."

We don't know what exactly they may mean at this stage, but as they sound important and thrilling, and as a device to make us want to watch, they are very good lines of dialogue to chose.

THE RESULT: Yes. Yes, everything appears to be in order, and as a result the remaining six episodes of the series all look terribly exciting don't they.